News
Dorset Foundation Trust adopts server virtualisation to improve
energy and storage efficiency
15 October 2008
Dorset HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust (DHFT) has appointed
healthcare IT specialist CSA Waverley to consolidate and virtualise its
server and storage infrastructure after identifying a critical need to
free up data centre space and power. All applications will now benefit
from high availability and resilience, streamlining business continuity
processes.
The move will see DHFT improve ICT infrastructure costs with a more
energy efficient data centre that meets green IT imperatives whilst
future proofing application flexibility. It will enable the Trust to
better serve staff and patients in a more sustainable manner.
CSA Waverley is consolidating the Trust’s extensive Windows server
estate by 67%, using HP Blade Server Infrastructure and virtualisation.
The solution also offers capacity and flexibility to migrate the
Trust’s live and legacy UNIX systems to the blade infrastructure, either
remaining natively UNIX or moving to Windows, with the option to
virtualise under either environment. CSA Waverley and DHFT are currently
working together to design an optimal migration plan for the UNIX
systems.
With an expected saving of 74% on annual energy costs due to a more
efficient and concise server estate, which requires less cooling and
power, the Trust will free up capacity for testing and refining its
fail-over services alongside the core of its wide-area network. This is
at the heart of DHFT’s business continuity strategy in conjunction with
high availability features delivered by virtualisation.
Nigel Rodgers, Head of Information Technology at the Trust, said: “In
order to meet the Trust’s growing information and accessibility demands,
our server estate has increased over time, like many others. Our biggest
constraints to further growth have been space, power and cooling
capacity. Consolidation to a virtual infrastructure was identified as
the only feasible option, and blade architecture offers the flexibility
to further consolidate our live and legacy UNIX systems.
“CSA Waverley has worked in partnership with the Trust for over a
decade in the UNIX arena, and has now proposed a creative approach to
tackling our key operational issues with a value-for-money solution that
offers future application flexibility across both Windows and UNIX
platforms.
“This will reduce both physical and energy footprints whilst
improving application resilience and availability. We will be able to
provide scalability and business continuity within existing constraints,
rather than worrying about having to extend physical capacity. CSA
Waverley’s solution is a win-win, reducing our operational costs and
improving our infrastructure with a rationalised, simple environment.
“With a virtual infrastructure we will be able to fulfil the Trust’s
requirements to provide and support information systems which underpin
the provision of high quality patient care.”
This win follows a recent streak of form for Buckinghamshire based
CSA Waverley, following a strategic partnership with Catalist-approved
technology services provider Probrand and a series of further wins
through Connecting for Health’s ASCC framework.
CSA Waverley Managing Director, Andrew Boyle, said: “Virtualisation
is helping the NHS stay one step ahead of data and disaster recovery
needs. Our expertise is in helping organisations meet the government’s
efficiency targets and green IT directive within a value for money
‘best-in-class’ framework. Dorset HealthCare is another example of how a
creative approach can unlock huge value to keep the organisation ahead
of its operational needs.”
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